Mood Board is our column where artists share a few of the things that inspired their new record. This week, Stephen Pedersen of the Omaha band Criteria tells us how his garden, his guitars, and the death of his closest friend shaped SEIZE! — out now on Spartan Records.
— Annie Fell, Editor-in-chief, Talkhouse Music
1. My Garden
When we bought our home 16 years ago, it came with a large and unruly perennial flower garden. I never envisioned myself to be a gardener.
Over the years, though, I’ve reinvigorated this old English garden into a great source of joy and relaxation. Very little of my life revolves around discrete, obviously achievable tasks, but working in the garden scratches that itch.
It’s also a great metaphor for Criteria’s new record, SEIZE! Every year I experience its full cycle of preparing for its birth in the spring, tending to it through the hot summer months, pulling weeds, separating plants for future growth and ultimately tearing it down and deadheading in the fall as it dies and is laid to rest in the winter. It’s some real “circle of life” shit in my backyard. This is why flowers are featured prominently in album art for SEIZE!
2. The Death Of My Closest Friend
I experienced the slow dying of my closest friend, Rawn James. We met at law school and became fast friends. We did everything together. When he moved to DC and I moved back to Omaha, we stayed in touch, texting, chatting, emailing every day for 24 years. He was an exceptional human and I miss him dearly.
Several of the songs on SEIZE! are ruminations on death and dying and finding hope and joy even in the moments of acute awareness of how short a time we have to live. SO, LIVE, DAMMIT!
3. My Guitars
I got my first Travis Bean guitar from a bandmate who repaid a debt by giving me his TB1000S. I fell in love with this instrument immediately! The strings sit on a solid piece of aluminum; they’re heavy as hell and are a joy and pain (my shoulder is forever damaged) to play! This guitar informs so much of my musical style; percussive guitar lines that build to ever larger riffs… It is exactly what this guitar commands of me!
